Calibrating Psilocybin Doses in Magic Mushrooms • The psilocybin content in mushrooms is uncertain and needs further study. • One gram of magic mushroom contains approximately 10 milligrams of psilocybin. Transcript: Speaker 1 We think. Yeah. Sorry, I missed that. I missed that one. We’re not fun at tangent. But yeah, 25 milligrams of psilocybin would be, we don’t know. And it’s important that I say that because I wouldn’t want people to hear my answer here and then use it to calibrate their own dosing and mushrooms and get it way off. So it’s guesswork. And I would love to see someone do a proper study on it. And, you know, look at the psilocybin content in a given massive psilocybin. It’s a philosophy, mushrooms, magic mushrooms. But to my knowledge, that hasn’t really been done. Someone like Paul Stamitz would give a better answer here. But I think the percentage within the mushroom mass is some of psilocybin in the mushroom mass and psilocybin, which is the metabolite of psilocybin is something in the 1% a little bit Higher, maybe range. Speaker 2 So one, one gram 1000 milligrams of magic mushroom would contain about 10 milligrams of psilocybin. Broadly speaking. Yeah. Great. That helps calibrate. (Time 0:27:02)
Psiquedélicos aumentan conectividad funcional entre distintas áreas del cerebro. Transcript: Robin Carhart-Harris You know, the picture that says a thousand words that some people might be familiar with are these two circles, a project that we did in collaboration with some researchers, where ordinarily The communication is going on within systems, like other regions of the visual system will be speaking mostly within the visual system. There’ll be a kind of cliquishness or a modularity to the quality of the communication in the brain. And then the cool finding with psilocybin was the first paper is that the communication, yes, it sort of transcends these modules and becomes much more intermodular, crossing different Modalities. And that effect correlated with the magnitude of the subjective effects. And then we replicated it with LSD using different methods. And a new paper will come out soon with DMT showing a similar effect. It’s a bit of a debate about what regions are most implicated, but the general effect of an increase in global functional connectivity is what we call it, or global communication in The brain. Andrew Huberman And this is while under the influence (Time 0:47:21)
cerebro conectividad modularidad psiquedélicos
cerebro conectividad modularidad psiquedélicos
The role of increased connectivity and hallucinations in psychedelic experiences • The activation of the serotonin 2A receptor can lead to increased connectivity and various effects like auditory and visual hallucinations and changed patterns of thinking. • It is uncertain whether the increased connectivity directly leads to the subjective experience or if it is a separate phenomenon influenced by the psychedelic drugs. • The relationship between increased connectivity and subjective experience is circular, with both influencing each other. Transcript: Speaker 2 I can imagine two possibilities and I think it’s important to distinguish between these two. One possibility is that the activation of this serotonin 2A receptor leads to increased connectivity and thereby auditory and visual hallucinations emerge changed patterns of Thinking emerge, etc. That’s sort of the obvious interpretation, but the scientist in me has to ask, is it possible that all of that increased connectivity is occurring, and yet that is a distinct phenomenon Layered on top of some other effect of the psychedelic drugs impacting access to the unconscious hallucinations. In other words, is it the increased connectivity that’s leading to the subjective experience or are those two things happening in parallel? Speaker 1 Well, they happen in parallel and they map to each other, but the question of causality what causes what is the tricky thing where I would suggest that the so the causality is circular That they influence each other, and (Time 0:50:38)
Neuroplasticity and Connectivity in the Brain: Insights from Psychedelic Research • Neuroplasticity is associated with growth of dendrites and spines. • Increased connectivity between brain areas observed under the influence of psychedelic drugs. • Connectivity effects can last beyond the duration of drug effects. • Duration of structural brain changes is still unknown but there is existing data. Transcript: Speaker 2 And by the way, folks, just I’ll interrupt for the not necessarily spine, the bone, you know, not the cerebral column, but spines are these little like little tiny twigs with bulbs on The end of neurons that are allowed for communication points between neurons. So neuroplasticity is often associated with growth of dendrites and spines and so forth, which is what Robin’s referring to that reminds me, and I just want to make sure that we close The hatch on the earlier answer because I interrupted you. And there’s increased connectivity between or communication between brain areas that’s observed while people are under the influence of the psychedelic also observed later after The effects of the drug were off. And then I’ll just throw in another question there because we’re on to this topic now to what extent do we think that neuroplasticity structural changes in neurons functional changes In neurons are responsible for that. Last, let’s say I take, let’s say I come into your clinic. I’m a subject in your experiment I take do come in in the morning I do my psychedelic journey five to six hours later parachuting back to reality, as we call it. And then I go home, increase connectivity lasts for how long and how long are the structural brain changes occurring. Speaker 1 Well, you’re asking fantastic questions, and partly because we don’t have the answer yet, but we do have some, we do have some data and so we have looked at first of all, (Time 0:59:06)
Psychedelic and Meditative Practices for Therapy Complementarity • Psychedelic therapy is a practice, similar to meditation practice. • Keeping up with psychedelic therapy is important to prevent slipping. • Meditation practice could complement psychedelic therapy. • Psychedelic therapy allows patients to sit with their experiences instead of being on medication all the time. Transcript: Speaker 1 And then it becomes what you might call practice in a similar way that meditation is a practice. It’s something that you have to keep up. And if it slips, then things could slip. And that’s the way it is. Or you have another psychedelic treatment, you know, so people have even used this term of practice in relation to psychedelics where there’s a psychedelic practice like there’s, You know, a meditation practice. But I’m using meditation intentionally here because they actually think that meditative practice, spiritual practice elements of spiritual practice could be a very important Complement to psychedelic therapy. And I think it’s probably doing something similar in terms of promoting an ability to sit with a former colleague of mine said it quite well in relation to psychedelic therapy versus Chronic pharmacotherapy or like SSRIs being on them all the time. So psychedelic therapy allows you to sit with rather than sit on. And I thought that’s quite good. (Time 1:16:31)
Psychadelic therapy for fibromyalgia pain management • Participants in the psilocybin study have fibromyalgia and are not instructed to think about their pain. • Unlike PTSD work, the focus in the study is not on the pain. • Psychedelic therapy allows for more dialogue compared to MDMA therapy. • It is unclear whether eye masks were used in the MDMA trials. Transcript: Speaker 2 And so they’re in the eye, they are wearing an eye mask under the influence of 25 milligrams of psilocybin, most of them probably have not done psilocybin before. So it’s a little bit like the first time study in some sense. They have fibromyalgia that’s debilitating in some way. They don’t want it, obviously. And during the session, are they thinking about their pain? Are they being told to think about their pain? Speaker 1 They’re not being told to think about the pain. In fact, as I understand it, while there is a therapeutic model around acceptance of the pain, it isn’t. Unlike some of the PTSD work, you aren’t encouraging them to focus on, you know, the index trauma and then, you know, work through it and try and digest it. We don’t do that with the pain. So the pain’s there, but there isn’t an invitation to focus on it. And that’s probably one of the differences with classic psychedelic therapy versus MDMA therapy. Arguably, MDMA therapy is more like, it’s a bit closer to traditional talk therapy, where there is more dialogue. Speaker 2 People are able to talk on MDMA. In the MDMA trials, do you know whether or not they used eye masks? (Time 1:34:25)